Stanley Baxter, the comedy superstar who was never comfortable with fame
Stanley Baxter’s impersonation of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra was one of many that brought the house down
Stanley Baxter, who has died at the age of 99, was a genuine comedy superstar during the 1960s and 1970. The Stanley Baxter Show ran from 1963 to 1971 and he also starred in hugely popular ‘TV spectaculars’ like Stanley Baxter's Christmas Box – until senior executives finally balked at the fantastic costs of the productions.
He was famous for dressing up in drag to do “nail-on-the-head” impersonations, as The Scotsman put it, of Hollywood stars like Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra. And his ‘Parliamo Glasgow’ sketches, in which he’d switch from Received Pronunciation English to Glaswegian – "Izat a marra on yer barra, Clara?" – demonstrated he was so funny that he could make a nationwide TV audience laugh even if they hardly knew what he was saying.
However, Baxter was never comfortable with his fame. "All this rubbish about the man behind the mask. I've had it again and again and again,” he once said. “The mask is what's important.”
Well, given the various masks he created over the years provided a great deal of joy to millions of people, he did the important bit tremendously well. Rest in peace.
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